The Clock Strikes Back.

"Hallo! How are you? We're fine."
Let me introduce us. We are twenty four birds. No, not the twenty four blackbirds from the nursery rhyme, but twenty for birds of twelve different species. I am the spokesman or, if you want to be politically correct, whatever that means, the spokesperson. We work twenty four hours a day in shifts of two. Yes, thought that would shake you but it is not so bad as it sounds. We live in a big wall clock and are responsible for marking the hours.

We love our clock. It has such a pretty face and each hour has the painting of two birds, all sorts of species of birds. Some have melodious songs, others not so and personally I would never have chosen them... Fortunately they mark the short hours which is just as well, whereas the real songsters mark the long hours. Better to have a coucou sing at one o'clock and a lark at twelve, if you see what I mean.

Our clock hangs on a kitchen wall and is near a window from where we can see into a garden where there are many trees. Because we can see the trees we feel quite at home and can concentrate on our work.

Our clock was given as a birthday gift in the late spring. Up until then we'd been living silently in a clock factory waiting in the wings as it were, to be wound up so we could burst into song. The significance of the time of year will become apparent later in my story.

All through the summer we filled the house with bird song. When the autumn came we were in for a shock. We started to hear the phrase "putting the clock back." We'd never heard of such a thing, putting the clock back where? How could you put a clock back? We held a meeting to work out how we were going to cope with this human lunacy. Some were in favour of a go slow but most of us felt that this was not a good idea, as a clock should always tell the right time. The meeting went on, no decision was made and we broke up not happy at all.

The fateful Sunday morning of the change got nearer. We still didn't know what to do about it or what was expected of us. All we knew was that at 3am it would be 2am. Would the 2 o'clock birds sing 3 times at 2 o'clock, and if so, what would the 3 o'clock birds do? Try to work that one out! You see our problem!

In the nick of time it came to us. We would register a strong protest against this re-arrangement of time. From midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday we would hold an all out strike. For 24 hours not a bird would sing to mark the hours. The clock would continue to work and show the right time, but in silence. There was total panic in the household. They had come to rely on us! We held firm for the 24 hours then went back to work again. No one ever knew what happened to the birds during those 24 hours and we are not likely to tell them are we? We now have a few months to work out another strong protest plan for when the clocks go forward. I'll keep you posted!

Copyright Jacqueline Hastings 2009